The CADspan plugin is a set of tools to help you make your SketchUp model 3D Printable. There is a tool to help organize your layers to seperate sections for printing, a tool to help Unsmooth the model, so that you can adjust curved faces as necessary, a Calculator to help you plan for tolerances on your model at your desired 3D Print scale, a visualizer to help find holes in your model and last, but not least, the CADspan engine to resurface your model on the cloud, providing you a single, water tight, solid STL file for 3D Printing.

-Uploaded files are loaded to the Amazon Cloud Server for processing and can be downloaded when complete. LGM does not have any access to your files.

Can I export an STL from the CADspan plugin?

-Yes, there are two ways of accomplishing this. You can export a draw STL if you are certain that your model is water tight and printable, or you can upload and process your model. If you process your model, CADspan will remove all of your interior geometry and provide you with a single, water tight, exterior shell as a STL file.

CADspan Crashed, why?

-CADspan does not actually crash, but it was unable to provide an appropriate solution to your geometry, based upon your settings. This either means you have a large hole somewhere, or your small hole was too large to patch based upon your resolution settings. Try a lower resolution and higher gap fill until you are provided with a solution. A low Resolution/High Gap fill solution may look perfectly fine to you.

I love CADspan, how can I help to make it better?

-Provide feedback, both good and bad. IF you really love it, sign up for CADspan PRO to help future development efforts, and enjoy faster processing of your files.

You can check to see that the toolbar is active under View>Toolbars..., or make sure the plugin is active under Window>Preferences>Extensions. Otherwise, the toolbar load up as a floating bar when you load the Extension and you can grab it and move it wherever you would like.
Thanks

we currently can only run up to version 2015, we bought 2015 and maintenance out to oct 2016 which we thought included any upgrades but trimble has said we cant get 2016 unless we have a new version and we can't currently do any more purchasing until later in the year so we are stuck with 2015 for the time being.

The tools work fine except for the Resurfacer, which is really the only tool I was hoping to use, When I click the Resurfacer, CADspan asks for login information. I created an account and I'm able to login in a browser, but in the sketchup plugin, a box shows up saying "Checking credentials..." and it seems to freeze there. I've tried this with sketchup 2014 and 2015 and I have the same problem. Please let me know if you know what's wrong.

Ashley,
As nick said, we had a server failure that has been addressed. You may also experience this problem if you are using the old (pre 64 bit) version of the plugin. The new plugin is now available so please load this as it will likely address your issue. If not I would be happy to walk you through your particular issue.
Thank you

I just downloaded the plugin today and it is still getting hung up at the same moment, not processing the login info. Can I find the plugin somewhere else? The download info on your website is only for Sketchup 8.

Ya they are supposedly performing maintenance on the servers. It has been down since wed of last week. I have tried emailing their info@ address but haven't gotten in replies as to what is going on. Only today when I tried to process a file in cadspan pro did I finally get a message about maintenance being performed on the servers.

We have been testing the resurfacing for awhile now and I am extremely impressed with it, definitely worth waiting for it to come back online. But one thing to keep in mind is if you have a large model then the free plugin might not be able to handle it. You can get a free trial of the pro version though.

If cadspan people are reading this, please work on your email responses...or send out a email blast about maintenance being done and ETA on when it will be finished.

Nick,
I will look in to the broken link immediately, I suspect the error was tied to the other server related issues. I will find a more robust method of directing those emails. I am currently in the process of compiling the emails of active users for the purpose of updating users of maintenance as you suggested. If you experience any future problems, reach out to me directly at patrickf@lgm3d.com
Thank you

We have posted a new version of the plugin to address the conflict with SketchUp 2015. CADspan now works with 32 and 64 bit versions of SketchUp. The new plugin will be live shortly and will be listed as 2.15.01
Thank you for waiting.

The export to Raw STL function works nicely, but it doesn't automatically add .stl to the file name, not a big thing, but a bit of an annoyance. Other than that, it works great! Very rarely do I have to do much else to get a design 3D print ready.

I am using sketchup 2014 and in order to get this plugin to load I have to go into my user->appdata->roaming->sketchup...plugins and delete all of the cadspan stuff then launch sketchup and go to the extension warehouse and install it. I need to do this every time I want to use cadspan, quite annoying...

Nick,
Please let me know if this is still occurring, we will be working on the plugin for SketchUp 2015 and I will see if we can make a patch for your particular issue, I believe it may have something to do with your install location for SketchUp.

well despite the annoying steps to get it working, i have to say I am very impressed. I am trying it on one of our 3d buildings, something small, single story retail type building. If export to stl and open in it the makerbot software then export to see how its going to print we get a whole bunch of diagonal lines running through the model and showing up in the exterior shell. I tried netfabb to help clean it up with no success. But CADspan was able to eliminate all but like 4 or 5 that weren't affecting the print or the outer shell so it didn't really matter. The print preview looks extremely clean, even the support for the canopy to print. I am printing the model out now and will need to run over night but I will let you all know how it turns out.

My one complaint is when I try to leave the interior walls, door and windows in the model and take the roof off so when it prints you can see the inside, their service crashes when trying to process the file. there are only 4 interior walls 2 doors and a few windows, I would think it could handle it, but I am only using the free version so maybe the pro version would be up to the task.

well the prints came out great, a vast improvement over just exporting from sketchup and trying to print. Still having problems with cadspan processing interiors though, even with just an empty shell of a building it will sometimes produce an stl and sometimes not, and this is using their cadspan pro 30 day trial. When it did work the stl it produced would show up in the print preview missing several exterior walls. So i wouldnt count on it working to well to show interiors.

I would highly recommend the cadspan pro though, being able to process multiple files at once is a huge help.

This plugin is turning out to be the tool we have been looking for to finally bridge the gap between our 3d models and our printer.

LGM is the premier resource for visualization & modeling solutions for the architecture, engineering and development industries. We provide unique, proprietary, state-of-the-art products, tools and services to our clients. In doing so we hope that our clients may more quickly, effectively and dramatically design, build and market products for their clients.
Our craftsmen collaborate with clients throughout their project cycles as team members to ensure the highest quality final results. Whether providing consultation, electronic file conversions and development, rapid prototypes or fully-developed large scale models, we strive to meet every client's needs in a time-efficient manner.